When I worked in skilled nursing I had lots of patients who loved to listen to music. Fewer and fewer families had radios or cd players to give them. Perhaps donate it to a skilled nursing facility loaded with Elvis and Neil Diamond mp3s
this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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Put some useful data in a web page (weather, traffic, stocks, whatever), keep it open in the phone web browser. Glue some magnets on the back of the phone and stick it to the fridge.
Pipboy!
Personally I prefer to give mine to charities that help women escape domestic violence households and need help setting up their lives again. Many leave with nothing, including their phones which are usually being tracked by their abuser. Have a look around to find one, or a local homeless shelter. Or, if you're worried it will become ewaste, send it to a recycling centre - many parts can be stripped out and made into new products.
Emulator game portable -
install an emulator, load it up with literally every game from atari to gameboy advance , and snap on a phone-attachable controller
Have security vulnerabilities
I used an old phone with a broken screen as a webcam since covid untill it totally broke recently.
However it needed some stars to align; I had a 3D printer to make a custom holder so it could sit on my monitor unobtrusively. I also luckily had a phone with a built in method to limit the battery charging so it could be plugged in 24/7. I was able to disable all power saving and permission features, so the app could run 24/7 without being killed by android.
I used droidcam, which works with an OBS plugin nowadays. I got it to the point that I just needed to launch OBS and my webcam was on, no touching or fiddling with the phone at all.
you could always use it for some tech experiments! there's lots of examples out there. retro gaming console, home server, run your own AI model (at least better than using big tech!), etc
Use it as a security camera.
TV remote
Media streamer
Media player with apps like media monkey
I always just hang on to them in case somebody breaks or loses theirs.
By the way, I'm all out of old phones and my son's is busted, so if you don't know anyone who could use it...
Turn them into like tablets or webcams. If you think to yourself "hey, this would be nice if I had a screen or a device here in this room for me to use..." then there you go.